Transportation

Key Trends

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Effective transportation systems are critical to the functioning and growth of our economy and maintaining our quality of life. Our region has a higher rate of people driving to work than the nation, but average commute times are shorter. Ridership on public transit in Knoxville increased since 2008, and airfare continues to be higher than surrounding airports.

Key Transportation Indicators

Nearly all residents (94%) working outside of the home in our region either drove alone to work or carpooled, similar to state trends. However, the region had a higher driving-alone number (84%) than the nation (76%), and a slightly lower rate of carpooling than the nation at 9%.

In 2010-14, the average commute time in our region was 23 minutes, shorter than the 24 minutes in the state and 26 minutes nationwide. Commute time declined slightly in our region since 2000 as comute times in the state remained steady. Commuters in Union traveled the longest in 2010-14, over 34 minutes.

The number of trips taken on Knoxville Area Public Transit decreased by 9% since 2005, reaching just over 2.8 million trips in 2014. This is 24% lower than the previous total ridership peak in 2013 with 3.7 million trips.

Knoxville’s average airfare of $464 in 2015 was higher than the major neighboring airports and the national average, with Nashville reporting the lowest average airfare. Average airfare from Knoxville has been consistently higher than the national average since 2005.